Mildred Harris wipes tears away as she recounts finding out that her son David Harris had been run over by her daughter-in-law.

Mildred Harris wipes tears away as she recounts finding out that her son David Harris had been run over by her daughter-in-law.

Photo: Pat Sullivan, AP

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Clara Harris cries as she listens to the testimony of her mother-in-law. The women's sobbing caused the judge to call a recess.

Clara Harris cries as she listens to the testimony of her mother-in-law. The women's sobbing caused the judge to call a recess.

Photo: Pat Sullivan, AP

Image 3 of 3

Clara Harris makes emotional apology to mother-in-law

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As she was escorted out a Harris County courtroom, Clara Harris tearfully apologized to her mother-in-law Friday, the second day of a civil suit filed in the slaying of Harris' husband.

"I'm sorry, Millie. I'm so sorry," a weeping Clara Harris told Mildred Harris, who herself had sobbed as she recounted on the witness stand seeing her son on the pavement of a Nassau Bay hotel after being run over by her daughter-in-law and then later arriving at a hospital after doctors had pronounced her son dead.

"He was just a lump over there," Mildred Harris said while describing the evening of July 24, 2002, when she and husband, Gerald, arrived at the Nassau Bay Hilton Hotel. "They had the yellow tape up and they wouldn't let me go over there, they wouldn't let me see him."

During her mother-in-law's testimony, Clara Harris placed her head on the defense table and cried. The women's sobbing caused the judge to call for a recess.

Mildred Harris, 73, and, Gerald Harris, 77, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Clara Harris and are seeking $5 million in damages for the loss of companionship, pain and torment caused them after their son, David's, death. The couple say their son promised to support them financially as they aged.

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Clara Harris was convicted in February 2003 of murder for running over her husband with her Mercedes-Benz after finding him with his mistress. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Her case is under appeal.

Under questioning from attorney Joe Stephens, Mildred Harris cried as she described the scene with her motionless son on the ground, Clara Harris crying in the distance and Mildred Harris' 16-year-old granddaughter, Lindsey Harris, sobbing uncontrollably. Lindsey was a front-seat passenger in the Mercedes-Benz.

"I hope nobody has to go through what I've been through. It's horrible," Mildred Harris told jurors in state District Judge David Bernal's court.

After leaving the hotel and heading to the Nassau Bay Police Department with Lindsey, Mildred Harris said that although distraught, she drove a few blocks to St. John Hospital. When she arrived, doctors told her, her son was dead.

"They put me in a little room and then they let me go into the room with him," she said still crying. "I went in the room. They had the sheet over him."

Mildred Harris remained on the stand throughout the afternoon as Stephens and attorney Dean Blumrosen, who is representing Clara Harris, questioned her. At times, Mildred Harris seemed flustered, confused and sometimes defiant at the barrage of questions.

When asked why she was suing she said it was because "we think it's unfair she get more than the boys." Mildred Harris was referring to the settlement of David Harris' estate. Mildred Harris, however, could not tell jurors how much Clara Harris received nor her grandchildren.

"My son was a good man. He made a mistake but he was a good man," she said.